The present invention relates generally to electronic mail systems and more particularly to systems and methods for providing recipient specific formats in electronic mail.
The use of word processing programs and electronic mail systems has resulted in a recurring problem for customizing a section of an electronic mail message for a particular recipient when the same message is also sent to other recipients. Presently, if an originating user wants to highlight a paragraph of a message for a particular recipient, then the paragraph is highlighted for everyone else receiving the message. Current technology only allows sending the same message to everyone on a list and does not allow for individual customizing of a single message for different recipients. The only current solution is for the originating user to make multiple copies of the message and then individually customize and send out a separate copy to each recipient separately.
To illustrate this problem, assume an office manager wants to send via electronic mail an assignment list to three different employees on his support staff, where each staff member is to have a delegated task. If the office manager wants to highlight in the message the delegated task corresponding to a staff member without the other staff members receiving the same highlighted section, then the office manager must make three copies of the message and separately highlight the particular sections for each staff member. In other words, three different versions of the same message are created and sent by the office manager.
Therefore, what is needed is an electronic mail system that allows an originating user to customize a message based on who the receiver is without the originating user having to generate multiple versions of the original message for other recipients. For the reason stated above, and for other reasons stated below which will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon reading and understanding the present specification, there is a need in the art for a method of allowing an originating user to individually customize an electronic mail message for different recipients using a single message.
Recipient sensitive format commands in an electronic mail system are supported by embedded processing codes within the text of an electronic mail message. An originating user of the electronic mail message causes the format commands to be embedded within the text, including an identifier code for identifying a specific recipient""s electronic mail message. The embedded format commands are recognized for automatically generating a separate, properly formatted electronic mail message for each specific recipient.
In one embodiment, a method of formatting text based on a specific recipient in a multiple recipient electronic mail system is presented. The method comprises the steps of receiving an e-mail message, embedding processing codes within the e-mail message, and automatically generating individualized messages for one or more specific recipients based upon the embedded processing codes. A computerized system and network for formatting text based on a specific recipient in an electronic mail system is also presented.
An advantage of recipient specific format commands in an electronic mail system is that such commands allow an originating user of an electronic mail message to individually customize the text of the message based on who the receiver is. Allowing an originating user to individually customize an electronic mail message for different recipients and having a system that automatically creates individualized messages avoids having the originating user duplicate the original message and tailor it for each recipient. Furthermore, when a recipient receives a message with highlighted text, the recipient is able to quickly focus on a section of the message that may be of particular interest. When an individual is reading or opening a large number of messages, text that is highlighted ensures that the recipient will more likely notice the pertinent part of the message.
Therefore, software designed to format text based on a specific recipient in a multiple recipient electronic mail system allows an originating user to automatically generate multiple versions of a message from the original message. In alternative embodiments of the invention, methods of automatically creating individualized messages of varying scope are described. For instance, the individualized messages are automatically created by the electronic mail software located on the originating user""s end or on the receiver""s end. Still other and further embodiments, aspects and advantages of the invention will become apparent by reference to the drawings and by reading the following detailed description.